


Appropriate

by Code16



Series: Have To Offer [4]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: AU--with powers, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, Non-Explicit, Ownership, Power Dynamics, dark!Harold, dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 12:18:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5928049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Code16/pseuds/Code16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"“I have a cause,” the man says. “One that might interest you. To serve this cause, I require resources. I am of the mind to make you one of them.”"</p><p>A different kind of spin-off/[dark(er)] AU bit off Deal</p>
            </blockquote>





	Appropriate

**Author's Note:**

> See endnotes for verse explanation and warning elaboration.

“I have a cause,” the man says, abstruse, imperturbable. “One that might interest you. To serve this cause, I require resources. I am of the mind to make you one of them.” With his height, technically John’s looking down at him, though it doesn’t really feel like it. 

“And why would that be something I would want?” The man shrugs.

“You can be a tool in my arsenal. Serve a purpose. I can provide for the needs you have and whatever desires might not interfere. Or you can continue your indulgent self-destruction and pour yourself down the drain like those substances you’re so fond of. Finish what your old employers failed at.” He shrugs again. “I would find this a useless waste, but it’s your life. Unless you decide otherwise, of course.”

* * *

“You have a very particular gift.” John had only come by the library for hardware, crossed behind Finch’s chair without expecting Finch to pay him any attention. The sentence, delivered without Finch turning around, stops him in place. However it might violate Occam’s Razor, somehow he has no doubt what Finch is referring to. Then the chair turns, Finch’s eyes on him suddenly. “Which I observe you have not felt the need to mention to me.” John swallows. Whatever questions he might have asked, about how Finch knows, when no one else has ever seen, die in his throat. (Excuses, reasons, never even pass the formation stage in his mind). (He should have known by now that Finch knows, can know, everything, that all-knowing doesn’t describe Finch only because information is not instantaneous).

“Yes,” he says instead. Stops again. Waits. Behind his glasses, Finch regards him. Like someone whose plan spans every situation. Like someone who knows he will be obeyed. 

“From this moment forward, you will make use of this gift when I instruct you. As any of your skills, it is at my disposal.” John swallows again. 

“Yes.” There’s one thing for him to say and he says it, repeats it, unadorned and through. Finch doesn’t like to waste time. Finch nods, barely perceptibly. 

“Ask me for something.”  _(-Yes-?)_  It’s an order, and part of him jumps to obey, anchored by the rest of him, standing unsure. “Don’t pretend you do not understand what I mean.” And it’s a test, John thinks, realizes. The substance of his offer, what he asks. He looks around the room.

“I’d like a new sniper rifle.” He doesn’t  _need_  one, still has enough hardware to last him. Wouldn’t have asked Finch for one, because he doesn’t, because if Finch wants him to have something it’s acquired and delivered and not his decision. Finch turns back to his computer, types. Turns back.

“You will have it in a week.” By the details of his expression, posture, John can tell he passed the test. Asked for something that befits a resource. Understood that the real allowance is in Finch permitting something even so incompletely resembling an order. “Now come over here, please. On your knees.”

* * *

“We will be doing this again,” says Finch after, while John is putting everything back in its place. 

“Yes.” He’d wondered, before, why Finch had never made use of him this way. Now he understands that Finch had wanted more than he could have given. That this is no longer a barrier. 

“It is appropriate, to our relationship. To the work you do.”

“Yes.” ( _I’m a tool in your arsenal_ , he doesn’t say.  _It is appropriate that you control me completely_. Finch doesn’t need him to say it.)

(A tool is useful, and a tool serves a purpose, and a tool has an owner.

_It’s your life. Unless you decide otherwise, of course._

It doesn’t matter, at this point, what the question is.

From the moment Finch had pointed him in a direction for the first time, that he’d taken a step in that direction and there’d been ground under his feet, he’d known what his answer would be.)

**Author's Note:**

> General verse summary: "John has the power to ask people for things they wouldn’t have done otherwise but are on some level open to, and in return he owes them sexual satisfaction however they might want it".
> 
> Note, I'm tagging this one dubcon rather than rape/noncon due to the particular [power] dynamics, but while the tone seems to have gone _less_ dark than I was thinking going in, I do believe that tag still applies, and is there for a reason.
> 
> No sex on screen in this one.
> 
> [My tumblr for these kinds of things](http://findundergrounddragoutofwater.tumblr.com). I love fandom social things, and anyone who feels like they might want to message etc me for any reason is encouraged to totally do so.


End file.
